Saturday, September 1, 2012

So, as my family will find out when they get around to reading my blog, I bought a car Thursday. The means of how I got it are odd and don't need to be posted online, but suffice it to say, "I have my old car back again."

The car in question is my old '91 Sable LS that I drove from August of '08 until the winter of '09 and it sat until '10 ( I think) when I sold it to a friend in need of some wheels. The car has worn quite a bit since I sold it, but I needed to buy it before he traded it in for Cash for Clunkers. I've been through a lot of crap with this car and lived to drive it another day, and I just can't see it (or any of my cars) go to the crusher.

So, I know this car isn't impressive or cool or classic or even desirable, but I have always liked this car, and it's mine again. It's not so bad...

This car is loaded with options; it was the Taurus that all first gen Tauri longed to be. (I feel I should stop myself, and mention something that I don't know if I've mentioned before. My dad used to buy Tauri so when they died, we'd have parts cars. Including my '00 and my sister-in-law's '96, We've had roughly 15 Tauri, but most of them were first gen wagons, so I know the line fairly well.) The best part that made it an ultimate Taurus is the fact that it's a Sable! This thing has "bucket" seats, console, floor shifter, moon roof, alloy wheels, fully digital dash board, fake wood trimmed interior, four wheel disc brakes, 3.8L V6, full power everything, and even an aftermarket stereo. I always thought this car handled way better than my previous Tauri (especially considering I went from a '90 Sable GS with a middle of the road trim level to this fully decked out car). I thought this thing could be easily road raced with a few tweaks, but I never got that far. The handling is hard to gauge right now due to worn out steering components, but I think we need to do some reconditioning on this car to get it back to how it was when I first drove it.

Who am I kidding? It's pretty bad...

I really didn't want to get rid of this car. I loved how the car felt and drove. It was a really fun car. Plus, I have a lot of history with this car! (I think I'll save the stories for the comment section, so check those out if you want!) Another thing is that this is the last car my dad bought for me to use. I recently read a comment on the Taurus Club forum, and it kind of struck a chord with me:
"That's a really nice ride! I would drive it and enjoy it, but don't
abuse it or beat on it. If you do and you wind up scrapping it one day
you will find yourself saying "man I wish I had treated that old car
better so it'd still be around"...especially if it's something that was
passed down to you by your parents. I had a 1994 Chrysler Concorde that
got passed down to me by my mother. I gave my parents my 2004 Impala
when she needed something more reliable to get to and from the hospital
in. The Chrysler was the last new car she ever bought and it was sharp
and really clean, but had some mechanical issues that needed sorting and
they could not afford to do it. I spent a few thousand fixing little
issues over the course of a couple years then I traded it in because it
had a broken motor mount and I didn't want to fix it...and wanted
something new(this was in 2006/7). Now that she has passed away I
really hate the fact that I didn't keep it to hang on to. Not to get
all downer on a subject or whatever. I'm just saying...it's nice to
keep something that someone in your life passed to you....to remember
them by one day. In a way it can help to keep them alive for you long
after they are gone."
That is also why we will never sell my Mom's F-250 which was the last car my Dad ever bought, but that's a much later post when we start to restore that one too.

Check out the digital gauge cluster! Oh, right; it's off...

So, this car is in rough-ish shape, but the body is still pretty clean, except for the rear wheel wells and a little on the doors. I'm thinking I should try to inhibit the rust, make the interior more awesome, and fix the suspension issues. Then, I hope I can fix the rust that's there, the bad body work from the previous, previous, previous owner (before I ever got it), and at some point, paint it. By that point, I will be well into the debate of whether or not I build a bored out SHO motor to go in it and beef up the trans to transmit the extra power to the roadway. At this stage in the game, I'm thinking yes, but the motor in there right now is big and still good, sooooo... We'll see, I guess.

As of right now and as far as I know, the car needs tie rod ends, at least one strut, body work, new rear bumper (from last time I owned it), muffler (or not), AC, steering rebuild, tires, alignment, possibly a wheel bearing, and definitely some weather stripping (also needed before I originally sold it). I drove it across town with no title, expired out of state plates, and shaking, loose steering, and it is a bit of a handful right now. I'll need to at least do the tie rod ends, alignment, tires, and possible wheel bearing just to make it road worthy without risking life and license every time I go places. Once that is done and the moths settle back into my wallet, we'll be able to make a game plan and see what else needs to be fixed after that.

This is just SOME of the unintentional body customization I did last time I owned it!

This will be a fun ride! (In more ways than one!)

P.S. I just got this picture sent to me from my mom tonight. This is a view of my mechanic's yard right now.

These cars just refuse to be separated from each other.
Some things will just always have to be in my garage...

About Me

I'm a guy who loves cars. I have all kinds of ideas for awesome custom cars, but I can't build them due to lack of funding, so I write about them here. I also can't decide on which one to build first, so that doesn't help cars get added to my garage either.
I've been infatuated with cars since I can remember, and hopefully, I can actually get something cool to call my own after a while. Although, I have had a few cool cars, but they all had to go because of moves, money shortages, or having wrecked my daily driver.
I've decided to also add write-ups of work I've done to my cars and my fun road trips I take to this blog. I'm hoping that if I get enough interested people watching my blog, maybe I can either get advertising revenue or crowd sourcing to help fund more fun trips or possibly car improvements.